Under the table

25Jan

My nose...its...HUGE!

So most of you already know my displeasure of campaign contributions from corporations and lobbyist groups. I don’t really need to say why but I will anyhow, how can the politicians (who are in the position they are to serve American citizens) have our best interest in mind when the ones stuffing money in their pockets have entirely different agendas.

While the best solution to this issue would be outright ban contributions from those two sources we at least have something. The Presidential Public Finance System is in place to reduce the need for candidates to rely on contributions from large corporations and lobbyist groups. You’ve helped finance this system if you’ve ever checked that little box on your tax returns for the Presidential Election Fund. This system was created following the events that occurred with Watergate where it was found that Nixon’s re-election campaign was receiving rather large sums of money from big corporations.

It’s obviously not enough, as they’re still receiving contributions from various large corporations. An even better solution would be to eliminate the reasons for candidate needing that amount of funding >>> See my post here to see what I’m referring to.

Motherjones.com, recently posted an article about the GOP‘s plans to rush a bill that would eliminate this finance system for good and essentially privatize campaign financing. The bill has been called a, “sneak attack on the system” and “a total break from their public pledge for transparency and openness,” and a, “gross abuse of the legislative process.” At the point that the GOP took control of the House they promised, “increased transparency and open debate” with any and all bills, then they go and try a stunt like this. If you recall, before the turnover of power, the Republicans’ were up-in-arms over the Democrats attempts “limiting openness and debate,” most likely around the healthcare reform debates. Now they are behaving in the exact same way, pot calling the kettle black for sure.

The claim made for this bill is that the Presidential Election Fund is underfunded and broken. So it seems the plan, these days, instead of fixing things that need fixing, is to completely eliminate them. No hearings or committees have been formed to debate the merits of this bill, and if it passes it will be the end of “one of the few remaining protections stopping corporations from heavily influencing, if not outright buying, American elections.”

Random Quote

"They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want … Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else... Good honest hard-working people continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about you..." - George Carlin

Random Quote

"If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." -J.K. Rowling

Random Quote

"Every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies...A theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." - Dwight D. Eisenhower